It has long been recognized that angiosperm sapwood in nature is relatively easily and preferentially degraded by white-rot fungi. This susceptibility to white-rot fungi is generally believed to be mainly caused by the structure and concentration of angiosperm lignin. However, an explicit explanation as to why lignin structure makes a particular wood vulnerable to white-rot colonisation and subsequent degradation has apparently never been given. We propose that free phenolic groups in wood, such as those present in the lignin or heartwood extractives, can act as free radical scavengers (antioxidants) which disrupt the various white-rot free radical degradative mechanisms. Consequently the presence of a relatively high free phenolic "density", such as that present in gymnosperm sapwood or angiosperm heartwood, may inhibit white-rot degradation. Conversely, white-rot fungi may find wood with a relatively low free phenolic content, such as angiosperm sapwood, easy to colonize. The complex structure of angiosperm wood, in which different cell types have different amounts and types of lignin -- and consequently different levels of free phenolic "densities" -- influences the susceptibility of angiosperm wood to initial white-rot colonisation and, perhaps, also the subsequent decay rate. In addition to the free phenolic ``density" other factors, some as yet unknown, undoubtedly also affect the decay resistance of a particular wood.

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